66 Day Challenge (Creating new habits)

As I was having a great day of doing business, I had a thought:

“Figure out a way to create momentum and the momentum will take you the rest of the way.” – Ben Laing

This thought came as a result of doing my daily Vlog on my Instagram @benlaing2 where I share my daily lessons, successes and failures. I figured out that I was having a great day of work mainly because I got up early enough (6am to be precise).

Getting up at 6am every morning was something I never dreamed of being able to do. I had myself labeled as an insomniac, night owl. I used to say “I’m not a morning person” and that I would always find it hard to get out of bed. That was until I decided to change my habits.

Changing your bad habits into good habits is easier said than done. My battle of trying to get up earlier has been going on for 10 years. Click here to read my other article on: “How to wake up & be SUPER Productive!” So the key here is to ask yourself if you REALLY want to create this new habit. You need to commit because without full commitment and a desire you won’t persist.

Once you are committed, you’ll find a creative way or you’ll find yourself reading this page and find a shortcut to creating new habits. I found this “shortcut” in the midst of reading hundreds of self-help books and this has been one of the best tools I’ve found to date. The shortcut came from the book The ONE Thing and the shortcut is called…

The 66 Day Challenge:

Here is the way that I create new good habits. They say it takes 66 days to create a new habit. The 66 Day Challenge helps me create the momentum and that momentum of having 5 to 6 days ticked on this “66 Day Challenge” sheet keeps me going to the end. Click here to get a copy of the 66 Day Challenge

How it works:

First you set the start date and give yourself ONE new habit e.g “Get out of bed at 6am everyday”. Every day you achieve your goal, you give yourself a tick on the sheet. When I fail, tear up the sheet and I start again.

The Challenge works best when you do it with someone who is also trying to develop a new habit. This way you can hold each other accountable.

Another way to help you be successful is by publicly commit yourself via announcing to your friends and family on Social Media what you are doing and give them daily updates. I do this with my own 66 Day Challenges on Instagram in my daily Vlog on my Instagram story. I’ve seen this strategy of public commitment, help people lose weight and I’ve seen my own friend quit drinking alcohol this way. It simply works! Robert Cialdini proves and explains in detail how public commitment works in his book Influence(The Psychology of Persuasion) by Robert B. Cialdini, which is a great read.